Architecture for using a model-based approach for managing resources in a networked environment

ABSTRACT

An architecture including a model-based management layer for managing resources and applications, and a method of software and resource management enabled by such an architecture.

This U.S. patent application is related to an application with Ser. No.11/395,429 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Resource Management with aModel-Based Architecture” being filed on even date to inventor Reiner etal. and assigned to EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, the same assignee asthis application.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains commandformats and other computer language listings, all of which are subjectto copyright protection. The copyright owner, EMC Corporation, has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

RELATED APPLICATION

This U.S. patent application is related to an application with S/N (tobe determined) entitled “Method and Apparatus for Resource Managementwith a Model-Based Architecture” being filed on even date to inventorReiner et al. and assigned to EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, the sameassignee as this application.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to software for computer systemsincluding Data Storage Systems, and more specifically, to anarchitecture including a model-based management layer for managingresources and applications, and a method of software and resourcemanagement enabled by such an architecture.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

To be competitive, businesses must align the management ofcomputer-based information technology (IT) resources with the servicegoals of business software applications. While there are domain-specificsolutions to bridge business applications and to link them to ITresource management, a combination of competing standards, fragmentedscope and missing links keeps these solutions from being either unifiedor successful. Web services adhere to a service-oriented architecture(SOA) that facilitates integration of legacy applications. Taken alone,existing Web services lack the deep semantics to link businessapplications to IT infrastructure. And while there are good foundationsfor resource management in the IT environment, known ones such as theDistributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Common Information Model (CIM)do not facilitate end-to-end management using multiple solutions,products and components in a consistent and unified way. Moreover,complications in a Data Storage Environment add to the complexity butresources in such an environment need to be managed as seamlessly aspossible with other IT resources, locally or distributed. What is neededis a solution to the complexities described above in a manner that isefficient and extendable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To overcome the problems and provide the advantages that have beendescribed above, the present invention in one embodiment is anarchitecture for enabling management software applications to manageresources in a heterogeneous networked environment. The architectureincludes a model-based management layer enabled for providing modeledinstances of objects representing resources that are accessed bymanagement software applications. The model-based management layerincludes extension models and profiles for extending a common-objectbased model component within the architecture. It also includes aservice interface that is used for communicating by the model-basedmanagement layer. It further includes a mediation layer thatcommunicates with the model-based management layer through the serviceinterface for managing resources that have service providers that arenot compliant with the service interface requirements of the model-basedmanagement layer.

The extension models and profiles allow the management softwareapplications to manage resources logically grouped in information groupsand resource groups and selectively classified according toclassification policy for carrying out resource services and applyingresource policies, wherein such services and application of policies areenabled by the model-based management layer. Such managed resourcesinclude servers, data storage volumes, data storage systems,information, business processes, and other software applications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and further advantages of the present invention may be betterunderstood by referring to the following description taken intoconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an overview of a model-based architecture embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is another view of a model-based architecture embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram describing a relationship offunctional and processing modules enabled by the architecture embodimentof FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a detailed block diagram showing functional and processingmodules in a relationship view including architectural components ofFIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 5 is another detailed block diagram showing functional andprocessing modules in a relationship view including architecturalcomponents of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 6 is an example diagram showing functional modules and processingmodules in a relationship view including architectural components ofFIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary diagram showing application interactions with thearchitectural components of FIGS. 1 and 2 and the functional modules ofFIGS. 4, 5, and 6;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of groups and classification of informationand storage resources useful by the model-based architecture forapplying policy, invoking services, and managing resources in thearchitecture depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of classification policy applied toinformation and resources; and

FIG. 10 is a computer program product including a computer-readablemedium encoded with program logic capable of executing methodologydescribed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The methods, apparatus, and architecture of the present invention areintended for use in management of software and resources includingnetworked computers, software applications, and/or data storage systems,such as the CLARiiON Disk Array system or EMC's Symmetrix Data StorageSystem, each being available from EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass.EMC software products, among others, which are useful with the inventioninclude EMC SMARTS Service Assurance Manager, Networker, ReplicationManager, Records Manager, and Content Intelligence Services.

Overview

The invention includes methodology enabled by a new model-basedarchitecture that provides a new Model-based Management Layer thatprovides a foundation for model-based management software. Thearchitecture extends and provides a common object model and a commonmanagement interface for task orchestration. It enables activemanagement across heterogeneous business and IT domains. Thearchitecture includes a middle layer with management applicationsoftware above it and service providers below it.

The model-based architecture and the Model-based Management Layerenables reconciling the needs of different management disciplines into asingle coordinated and consistent model. This enables orchestrationacross the different disciplines. Commonality and interoperability ofapplication software in the form of Management Applications (seedescription of FIG. 1) come from the known DMTF Common Information Model(CIM) compatibility, from the integrated semantics and interfaces of thearchitectural embodiment of the invention described with reference toFIGS. 1 and 2 below, and from the known Storage ManagementInitiative—Specification (SMI-S) compatible base usage profiles defined.However, support for variation comes from the ability to specializeobject classes, to extend the new model, and to define new profiles andpatterns. Profiles are specifications of a model to accomplish specificgoals. Basically Profiles constrain a more general model and describeits usage. For example, naming conventions and required properties areprofiles.

The new Model-based Management Layer (FIG. 1) and the overall newarchitecture including this Layer are extensible. Through a managementinterface that enables applications and providers to invoke welldefined, standardized and powerful service requests, the newarchitecture with its new extensions and functions facilitatesprogrammatic composition, orchestration and reuse of providers' servicesin a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

The new architecture and methodology encompass certain principles. Manyof these are architectural in nature: a new architecture including acommon object model, extensibility mechanisms, use of profiles, newextensions and reconciliation of existing models, a new Model-basedManagement Layer, standards compliance, and industry partner compliance.A new process is enabled by the new architecture and referred to belowas the MASE process. A goal of the inventors is to achieve reuse thatsimplifies and accelerates product design and development tasks,model-based management that orchestrates execution of underlyingmanagement tasks, and interoperability of heterogeneous products throughcommon semantics.

Architectural and Methodology Embodiment Details

FIG. 1 shows a simple block diagram representing an architecturalembodiment 10 including a Model-based Management Layer 14 that providesthe modeled instances of managed objects and their attributes.Management applications 12 (1-N) access modeled instances of managedobjects and their respective attributes and methods in accordance withthe profiles to which service providers 18 provide conformance. Amediation layer 16 is provided for providers that are not compliant withthe architectural specifications. A provider can support many differentprofiles depending on the needs of its applications. Service providerstranslate method invocations on modeled objects into serviceinvocations.

FIG. 2 shows another block diagram representing an architecturalembodiment 50 including a Model-based Management Layer 140 that providesthe modeled instances of managed objects and their attributes. TheModel-based Management Layer includes core and common models andprofiles and extensions models and profiles and may include well-knownDMTF CIM and SMI-S profiles. A mediation layer 160 is provided forproviders that are not compliant with the architectural specificationsin particular service interface requirements. The Model-based layerprovides monitoring and active management of new domains, optionallypassing through the mediation layer.

Management Applications 100 access the modeled instances of managedobjects and their respective attributes. Such Applications may include,for example, a Model-Enabled EMC Control Center Application, otherApplications, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Processes, andModel-Enabled 3^(rd) Party or Business Partner Applications. Developmentand Runtime Tooling 110 facilitates application and model generation.Managed Resources 180 include various type of entities including abusiness process, information, IT service, application, middleware,DBMS, Server, network and storage.

FIG. 3 shows a process, which the inventors have referred to as the MASEprocess for using a Model-based Management Layer 206 that is a level ofabstraction that incorporates the Model-based Architecture of FIGS. 1and 2 for handling the Managed Resources 180 and also handlesapplications, such as the Management Applications 100 (FIG. 2). It isreferred to as a MASE process to incorporate the functions it involvesand enables as shown in the Functional and Processing Modules:Monitoring 208, Analysis 202, Strategizing 200, and Execution 204. InFIGS. 4-7, more detail is given about the MASE process and theModel-based Management Layer to explain the interactions made possibleby the Model-based Architecture of FIGS. 1 and 2.

Referring to FIG. 4, an overview of a data center management platformincluding the Managed Resources 180 with a Virtualization Layer 230communicates with the module Blocks 202, 208, 200, and 204 providing theMASE Functional and Processing Modules and passing up to thePresentation Layer 212 for the Managed Applications. The Model-basedManagement Layer 206 includes History, Policies, Workflows,Configurations, and Interrelationships information among otherinformation provided through use of the Model. The Monitoring Module 208includes Monitoring Sub-Module 214, Discovery Sub-Module 216, and aMediation Sub-Module 218 that communicate with the Model-basedManagement Layer 206. The Execution Module 204 includes theOrchestration Sub-Modules 220, Services Sub-Module 228 that representthe various types of Actions that may be performed in accordance withthe Management Application Goals related to Applications and Resourcesmanaged.

Mediation Sub-Modules 218 and 226 communicate with the ServiceInterfaces of the Model-based Management Layer, which in turncommunicates with the Virtualization layer 230 for the Managed Resources180. Also, Strategizing Module 202 and Analysis Module interact betweenand directly with the Presentation Layer and the Model-Based ManagementLayer that enables the functionality and processing capability of allthe MASE modules as described herein.

The Model-based Management Layer and the overall architecture shown withfunctional and processing modules shown in FIG. 4 include classhierarchies that describe services, information and infrastructureresources, capabilities, organizations, business processes, policies,workflows and many other objects—as well as semantically-meaningfulrelationships among objects. The overall approach goes beyond theconcept of configuration-tracking using Configuration ManagementDatabases to enable model based management across business and ITdomains.

Major areas of coverage for the Model-based approach described hereinand some of their principal uses include:

-   -   Applications (for tracking and management; mapped to        organizations and to infrastructure)    -   Associations and relationships (such as composition, ownership,        event propagation, federation, dependency and adjacency)    -   Behavior and its propagation characteristics (for root cause and        impact analysis)    -   Business processes (for mapping and tracking business        relationships to the IT infrastructure)    -   Classifications (of information groups, of storage and        protection, of metrics)    -   Configuration items (the aspects of servers, networks, storage,        software, etc. used for asset and configuration management)    -   Configurations and versioning (for configuration and change        management, and for provisioning operations)    -   Content (for access, incorporation, tracking, and other aspects        of Information lifecycle management (ILM), which is an IT        strategy based on the fact that not all information has equal        value and the value changes over time. This strategy enables        enterprises to more effectively manage their growing volumes of        information—from creation to disposal—according to the        information's changing requirements and to automatically align        the information to the most appropriate resources, or to dispose        of it, over time.    -   Constraints (for maintaining correct semantics, specifying        settings and capturing policies)    -   Dimensions and aggregates (for multi-dimensional navigation and        historical analysis)    -   Documents (for creation, composition, distribution, routing,        disposition, and other aspects of ILM)    -   Events (for tracking, triggering, auditing and analysis)    -   Expressions, filters, formats and queries (for selecting and        constraining objects and activities)    -   Files and file systems (for access, reference, and ILM)    -   Incidents and problems (for tracking, root cause analysis and        resolution)    -   Information containers and groupings (includes files,        directories, libraries, tables, tablespaces, etc.; for ILM)    -   Management actions (for tracking, analysis, compliance, and        optimization)    -   Messages (for tracking and analysis)    -   Metadata (for describing properties and constraints of objects)    -   Methods (for describing invoked object behaviors)    -   Metrics (for performance and service level management, for        business continuity management)    -   Models of object states and state transitions (for analysis and        optimization)    -   Networks (for tracking, analysis, management and optimization)    -   Ontologies and taxonomies (for knowledge organization and        mapping)    -   Organizations (mapped to applications and infrastructure, for        impact analysis, forecasting, etc.)    -   Policies (for codifying, shaping and driving IT and business        best practices; e.g. monitoring rules, ranging from polling        frequency to event filtering and forwarding to diagnostic or        corrective action in response to problems).    -   Processes (for tracking and controlling object execution)    -   Recovery points (copies of information groups for recovery        purposes)    -   Relationships (for tracking and acting on the semantics of        object associations such as grouping, composition, ownership,        etc.)    -   Roles (such as Users)    -   Schedules (to define and track task execution behavior)    -   Security (for tracking and auditing, detecting issues,        controlling access and operations)    -   Servers (for tracking, analysis, management and optimization)    -   Service Level Objectives and Agreements (for service level        management)    -   Services (in the SOA sense; to support identification and use of        relevant packaged capabilities)    -   Storage containers, groupings and capabilities (for tracking,        analysis, management and optimization)    -   Usage tracking (for chargeback and other accounting)    -   Users, roles and permissions (for authorization, access,        scheduling, automation and other management)    -   Workflows and scripts (for capture and enforcement of best        practices and constraints, and for guiding progress and tracking        status)    -   Workloads (for transaction and performance analysis)

Referring to FIG. 5, a more detailed view of the platform discussed inFIG. 4 and including the architectural components of FIGS. 1 and 2 isdiscussed. In Monitoring Module 208, observations are passed between theMediation Sub-Module and the Monitoring Sub-Module, while ObjectMetadata is passed to the Discovery Sub-Module. Communication to theModel-based Management Layer 206 occur directly from the DiscoverySub-Module and the Monitoring Sub-Module and through the ServicesInterface for the Mediation Sub-Module.

The Analysis Module 202 communicates priorities to the StrategizingModule 200 and also communicates directly with the Model-basedManagement Layer. The Analysis Module also passes data related toAlerts, and data related to Analysis for the Presentation Layer 212. TheStrategizing Module 200 passes Views and Drilling data and Choices andImpacts data to Presentation Layer 212, while passing Plans to ExecutionFunctional Module 204, and while communicating with the Model-basedManagement Layer 206.

Still referring to FIG. 5, the Model-based Management Layer 206 in turncommunicates with the Execution Module 204. The Execution Moduleinternally passes Service Invocations between the OrchestrationSub-Module and the Services Sub-Module. The Services Sub-Module issuesother Service Invocations to the Mediation Sub-Module that, in turn,communicates with the Service Interfaces component of the Model-BasedManagement Layer 206. The Service Interfaces issue Messages to theResource Service Providers 18 (FIG. 1) for Managed Resources 180 throughthe Virtualization Layer 230. Event Captures from the Managed Resourcesare passed to Service Interfaces from the Virtualization Layer foreventual handling within the Model-based Management Layer.

Referring to FIG. 6, a more detailed but exemplary view of the platformdiscussed in FIGS. 4-5 and including the architectural components ofFIGS. 1 and 2 is discussed. The Presentation Layer 212 includescapability for Visualize and Control, as shown includes examples ofManagement Applications. Such exemplary Applications include ApplicationService Management, End-to-End Performance Management, InformationLifecycle Management (ILM), Availability Management, and Active Changeand Configuration Management.

In this example of the Application Services Management Application, theVisualize and Control presentation capability, which may be included aspart of a Storage Management Program such as EMC Control Center orNavisphere, comprises web portal with a status dashboard. Furtherincluded may be visualization of application topologies, service leveland management actions, capabilities for drilling into service issues,wizards for administration, tuning and configuration change.

The Strategize Module 200, as shown in FIG. 6, continues the example ofa specific Management Application, i.e., the Application ServicesManagement Application, which includes capability for policy-basedmanagement, optimization, advice on choices, what-if analysis, ITIL bestpractices, impact analysis of change requests, and configurationvalidation. In this example, the Analyze Module 202 includes capabilityfor trending, profiling, threshold analysis, service levels, root-causeanalysis of problems, and resource use studies. Further in developmentof the example, the Model-based Management Layer 206 includes capabilityfor event history analysis, priority management, service level metrics,policies for discovery, monitoring, general analysis, strategy andaction selection, workflows, and configuration relationships.

Still further in development of this example case, the Monitoring Model208 includes capability within the Monitoring Sub-Module forcorrelation, de-duping, event capture, and metric computation. Itfurther includes capability within the Discover Sub-Module forrelationships of application to infrastructure and the Mediation Layercan capture and poll information from resources.

The Execution Module 204 includes capability with the Execute Sub-Moduleto JO coordinate workflow/policy across the entire MASE process. In thisexample case, the Services Sub-Module includes capability forprovisioning, initializing, load-balancing, tuning,quiescing/restarting, element management, and configuration and changemanagement.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an Application interacting in the Model-BasedArchitecture of FIGS. 1 and 2, with the Model-based Management Layer andMASE Process enabled by that Architecture and described with referenceto FIGS. 3-6. The Example detailed in Block 300 is that of ApplicationService Management. Regarding terminology, Control in Example Block 300refers to action in the Management Applications 100 Layer caused by theApplications Service Management application or application. In the Block300, Monitor, Analyze, Strategize, and Execute refer to activities withthe respective MASE process Modules, and Actions refer to activitiesorchestrated by the Execution Module.

In the example case, Control occurs when the Admin creates a responsetime policy for online order transactions. Monitoring begins to monitorthe response time. Analyzing steps periodically check if the averageresponse time is below the 5 second threshold. The Analyze Moduledetects a high average response time for ordering. It further determinesthat all application servers have high CPU utilization. Then theStrategize Module can be used to determine an action, which may involvehuman interaction. In this example, a choice is made with Strategize todeploy an additional application server.

Continuing with the example case shown in FIG. 7, the Execute Modulecreates a workflow to deploy a new application server device and enactsand manages workflow. Actions in this Execute Module provision theserver and update the load balancers. The Monitor Module continuesmonitoring response times. The Analyze Module verifies that the averageresponse time in now less than 5 seconds. The Control Module notifiesthe Application administrator of the situation and actions. Theadministrator may infer a queuing problem between the server and thedatabase and create a fix. A plan to implement the fix is part ofStrategize and distributing the fix is part of Execute.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of groups and classification of informationand resources useful by the model-based architecture for applyingpolicy, invoking services, and managing resources in the architecturedepicted in FIGS. 1 and 2. In the example case shown in FIG. 8,resources are shown as one type of resource, namely storage resources.It is useful for understanding applicability of the major areas ofcoverage for the Model-based approach described herein and some of theirprincipal uses discussed above. An Information Group 402 is composed ofone or more Information Containers 400. Information Group Classification404 relates Information Groups to Information Group Classes. ServiceLevel Objectives 410 are determined by classification. The MappingPolicy 414 is used to achieve Services Levels for a particularInformation Group Class. The Service Level Objectives group the ServiceLevels 412 for convenience (e.g., Business Critical class).

Referring to FIG. 9, the Information Group Classification Policy 500 isapplied to determine the Information Group Class 406, which may be forexample a so-called Business Critical Class. Information GroupClassification Policy 500, which is a (ISA) subclass of ClassificationPolicy 502, assigns Info Group Classes 406 to Information Groups 402producing Information Group Classification 404 in accordance with Scheme408. Scheme 408 aggregates or combines other groups as needed. Forexample, a classification scheme for criticality may aggregateclassification schemes for type, owner, age, and security ofinformation. In other words, it may useful to combine an aggregation ofinformation in order to give a better understanding for creatingpolicies.

In a similar fashion, the Storage Group Classification Policy 504 ISAsubclass of Policy 502. Policy 504 is applied to determine Class 422,which may be for example a so-called Platinum Class. Class 422 isassigned to Group 418. That assignment is Storage Group Classification420 in accordance with Scheme 424. Scheme 424 aggregates or combinesother groups as needed.

The Classification may be done selectively in accordance with the needsof the Management Applications wherein the selective classification isdone in accordance with the Classification policy. For example, an ILMManagement Application may need to classify resources or information,for example, in order to carry out an ILM function of handlinginformation according to its classification and another type ofManagement Application may not have the same needs and therefore notneed classification.

Referring again to FIG. 8 and also to FIG. 9, the Mapping Policy 414uses one of the Storage Group Classes classified according to Policy 504and a Storage Group Classification 420 for Storage Group 418 in StorageContainer 416. The Storage Class may have certain characteristics, suchas a so-called Platinum class which pertains to certain importantstorage resources in this example. Classification Policy 502 isspecialized to create Resources, e.g. Storage, and/or Information GroupClassification Policy to affect, among other things, data protection andother software and services in a networked environment. Resources alsoinclude software, including information management and data managementsoftware. The Model-based Management Layer takes advantage of suchclassifications and groups for enabling services on resources managed byManagement Applications, such as the services described above, includingfor example Information Lifecycle Management (ILM), provisioning ofstorage, data protection, and other software and services.

FIG. 10 shows a computer program product 150 including acomputer-readable medium 148 encoded with computer program Logic 34(software in a preferred embodiment). The Logic is configured forallowing a computer to execute the methodology described above. Oneskilled in the art will recognize that the Logic may also be loaded intoconventional computer memory and executed by a conventional CPU. Themethods and apparatus of this invention may take the form, at leastpartially, of program code (i.e., instructions) embodied in tangiblemedia, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, random access orread only-memory, or any other machine-readable storage medium. When theprogram code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as acomputer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention.The methods and apparatus of the present invention may also be embodiedin the form of program code that is transmitted over some transmissionmedium, such as over electrical wiring or cabling, through fiber optics,or via any other form of transmission. This may be implemented so thatwhen the program code is received and loaded into and executed by amachine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus forpracticing the invention. When executed in a computer's memory by aprocessing unit, the logic reconfigures a general purpose digitalcomputer into a special purpose digital computer enabled for carryingout the process and methodology discussed herein. When implemented on ageneral-purpose processor, the program code combines with the processorof the computer to provide a unique apparatus that operates analogouslyto specific logic circuits.

A system and method has been described for a methodology based on aModel-based architecture that provides a Model-based Management Layerthat provides a foundation for model based management software. Thearchitecture provides a common object model and a common managementinterface for task orchestration across heterogeneous business and ITdomains. The architecture includes a middle layer with managementapplication software above it and service providers with resources belowit.

Having described a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it mayoccur to skilled artisans to incorporate these concepts into otherembodiments. Nevertheless, this invention should not be limited to thedisclosed embodiment, but rather only by the spirit and scope of thefollowing claims and their equivalents.

1. An architecture for enabling management software applications tomanage resources in a environment and wherein such resources includeservers, data storage volumes, data storage systems, information,software applications, and business processes and which the resourcesare in a heterogeneous networked environment, the architecturecomprising: one or more processors embodying a model-based managementlayer for providing modeled instances, of objects representing theresources that are accessed by management software applications throughthe model-based management layer, wherein the model-based managementlayer includes extension models and profiles for extending acommon-object based model component within the architecture, and theextension models and profiles allow the management software applicationsto manage resources logically grouped in information groups and resourcegroups and selectively classified according to a classification policyfor carrying out resource services and applying resource policies, andthe model-based management layer, a service interface, a virtualizationlayer, an execute module, and a mediation layer are configured forallowing management of the resources using monitoring module, analysismodule, strategizing module, and execute module for carrying outprocesses of monitoring, analysis, strategizing, and execution, wherein;a strategize module strategizes a solution to a policy violation and iscommunicatively coupled to the execution module, the monitoring modulecomprises a mediation sub-module, monitoring sub-module, and a discoverysub-module; the monitoring sub-module includes a capability forcorrelation, de-duping, event capture, and metric computation themediation sub-module and the monitoring sub-module are enabled to passobservations-and object meta-data is passed to the discovery sub-module;the analysis module analyzes compliance with the classification policy,and such that the analysis module further performs trending, profiling,and threshold analysis, and is communicatively coupled to the strategizemodule; the service interface communicates with the model-basedmanagement layer; the mediation layer communicates with the model-basedmanagement layer through the service interface for managing resourcesthat have service providers that are not compliant with architecturalspecifications in service interface requirements of the model-basedmanagement layer, the virtualization layer abstracts information aboutthe managed resources that communicates with the model-based managementlayer through the service interface, and the execute module comprises aservices sub-module and an orchestration sub-module, the servicessub-module performs the services of provisioning, initializing, loadbalancing, tuning, quiescing/restarting, element management, andconfiguration and change management; the services sub-module issuesservice invocations to the mediation layer; the service issues messagesto resource providers for the managed resources through thevirtualization layer; and the execute module executes the solution toensure compliance with the classification policy.
 2. The architecture ofclaim 1, and further including a development tooling layer thatcommunicates with the model-based management layer and wherein thedevelopment tooling layer is useful for application and modelgeneration.
 3. The architecture of claim 1, wherein the model-basedmanagement layer includes a monitoring function for monitoring managedresources.
 4. The architecture of claim 1, wherein resources groups,resource services and resource policies are, respectively, storagegroups, storage services and storage policies.
 5. The architecture ofclaim 1, wherein managed applications include an information lifecyclemanagement application.
 6. The architecture of claim 1, and furtherincluding a development tooling layer that communicates with themodel-based management layer, wherein the development tooling layer isuseful for application and model generation.
 7. The architecture ofclaim 1, wherein the model-based management layer includes a monitoringfunction for monitoring managed resources.
 8. The architecture of claim1, wherein resources groups, resource services and resource policiesare, respectively, storage groups, storage services and storagepolicies.
 9. The architecture of claim 1, wherein managed applicationsinclude an information lifecycle management application.
 10. Thearchitecture of claim 1, wherein the model-based management layerincludes instances of objects related to configurations useful forconfiguration and change management of applications or managedresources.
 11. The architecture of claim 10, wherein the configurationand change management includes provisioning operations.
 12. Thearchitecture of claim 1, wherein the architecture enables specializationof object classes for Management Applications.
 13. The architecture ofclaim 12, and further including a development tooling layer thatcommunicates with the model-based management layer and wherein thedevelopment tooling layer is useful for application and modelgeneration.
 14. The architecture of claim 12, wherein the model-basedmanagement layer includes a monitoring function for monitoring managedresources.
 15. The architecture of claim 12, wherein resources groups,resource services and resource policies are, respectively, storagegroups, storage services and storage policies.
 16. The architecture ofclaim 12, wherein managed applications include an information lifecyclemanagement application.
 17. The architecture of claim 12, whereinresource groups include software applications for information managementand data management.
 18. The architecture of claim 1, wherein resourcegroups include software applications for information management and datamanagement.